Representing Homeowners In Foreclosure Rescue Deals

For those of you in the practice of law, as well as those who work with attorneys (ie. paralegals, law clerks, private investigators doing class action work, law students, and others) who are looking for a clear, cogent reference dealing with the legal issues involved in representing victims of foreclosure rescue deals, you might want to check out the following two works that I found floating around out on the Internet.

1) The first source of reference is identified as Chapter 11 - Foreclosure Rescue Scams from National Consumer Law Center's Foreclosures Manual.

2) The second source of reference is also titled Foreclosure Rescue Scams, a 77-page work appearing on the website of the Office of the Washington State Attorney General.

This work is broken up into four parts:

1. Anatomy of a Foreclosure Rescue Scam
2. Legal Theories - Equity & Common Law
3. Legal Theories - Statutory
4. Representing Victims of Foreclosure Rescue Scams

In addition, there is an appendix, which is 6+ page Initial Client Interview Checklist, containing questions to be asked at an intial meeting of a client who has become entangled in a foreclosure rescue situation.

Contained in the work is a discussion of the following equitable and common law theories: (a) equitable mortgage, (b) unconscionable transaction, (c) fraud & constructive trust, (d) breach of fiduciary duty, (e) quiet title & partition, (f) breach of contract & promissory estoppel, and (g) agency, vicarious liability, and bona fide purchaser.

It also contains a discussion of potentially applicable Federal statutes (Truth In Lending Act - TILA, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act - RESPA, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act - RICO); as well as the applicable state statutes of Washington State (while it may not seem to some that the discussion of the Washington State statutes would be of much use to legal professionals outside the state of Washington, I would submit that most (if not all) states have their own version of some of the Washington statutes discussed in the work - ie. usury, state consumer protection / unfair and deceptive trade practices statutes, statutes regulating the conduct of mortgage brokers, equity skimming, civil rights; from this point of view, discussion of the state statutes in Washington may give some perspective to those in other states when determining what state statutes are applicable in jurisdictions outside Washington).

Procedural issues are also discussed, as well as the nature of the documents essential to the case that need to be obtained during the discovery stage of the litigation.

For the MS Word version, see Foreclosure Rescue Scams - doc.; or for the html version, see Foreclosure Rescue Scams - html.